DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 27 March)— Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte’s war on drugs pronouncement is “already the Davao City Police Office’s (DCPO) standing order.”
Personnel from the Davao City Forensic Unit conduct investigation at the crime scene following the death of a suspected drug pusher named only by her alias, “Ninin.” on Tuesday (26 March 2024). Photo courtesy of DCPO
Col. Richard Bad-ang, the newly installed city police director, said that the mayor had not given him a direct, standing order but during his assumption as the city director, he said Duterte’s pronouncement “was already a standing order.”
“So far wala man siya’y standing order, but during my assumption [as a city director on March 22], his pronouncement is already the standing order. So far, there’s no specific order given to me but what I did was… makita man nato ang Davao City, the policemen are working very hard to make the city safe and secure from criminals and other threats,” Bad-ang said.
The death toll, the DCPO confirmed, is seven as of March 27 since Duterte called for a war on drugs on Friday.
Bad-ang said, however, that the alleged criminals, including drug users or pushers who were killed during police operations, can be attributed to police officers who would want to protect themselves from harm. He affirmed “this is not part of the city mayor’s mandate.”
“Every situation calls for different approaches on neutralizing criminals. In those situations siguro [probably], they want to engage or to apprehend a criminal. It so happened that during the engagements, lumaban iyon at may baril [they fought back with guns],” Bad-ang told reporters at the sidelines of the city council session Tuesday morning.
Bad-ang also said they are following the “proper police operational procedures” during their operations, even urging his fellow police officers to really follow it.
“The mayor does not want na may ma-dale o ma-aksidente ang kapulisan natin [The mayor does not want that our police personnel will be targeted or be involved in an accident], that’s why our instruction to them was to make yourselves safe and protect your life,” Bad-ang said.
“If that situation arises, if they counter situations na may criminal or pusher, may baril, ipuputok sa kanila, so they have to respond appropriately naman din,” he added.
Bad-ang said that under his watch as a DCPO director, he will be focusing more on maximum deployment of personnel “day and night” and community engagement, to talk with the community and determine what the police can do to help the needs of the community.
His crime solution strategy, he said, is “to arrest the criminals, put them in jail. So what we are going to do is to enhance our intelligence operations and investigations so that we can apprehend criminals.”
On Tuesday morning, two alleged drug users were killed during police operations in two different locations.
At 12:50 a.m., Elisado “Lupin” Paquibot was shot during an “armed confrontation” with police officers from Toril Police Station 8 in a buy-bust operation.
Police officers seized various sizes of elongated heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing alleged shabu from the suspect.
Hours later, police personnel from Eden Police Station confiscated four sachets with suspected shabu with an estimated weight of 6.1 grams with a street value worth P97,600 and a caliber .38 revolver from someone known only by her alias, “Ninin.” She was pronounced dead on arrival in Toril Mediquest Hospital later that day.
Captain Hazel Tuazon, DCPO spokesperson, said that of the 21 operations conducted by the DCPO from March 22 to 26, 17 people were arrested and seven died. Twenty-two cases were filed as well.
“More suspects surrendered over those who fought back,” Tuazon said in a statement sent to reporters Tuesday afternoon.
She said the DCPO has been doing the operations for a while, but has apparently gained media attention only when the mayor used the word “war” in the campaign against drugs.
From the operations, Tuazon said the DCPO confiscated seven firearms, alleged shabu valued at P1.37 million, and alleged marijuana at P7,243.
For Bad-ang, “Oplan Tokhang” (or “Toktok Hangyo,” meaning, to knock on doors and ask drug pushers to stop what they’re doing) still remains.
He said policemen go to the homes of suspects to persuade them to stop their involvement in the drug trade. “Most of those we talk to, they voluntarily stop, because they know they are being monitored,” Bad-ang added.
Oplan Tokhang started in Davao City when former President Rodrigo Duterte was mayor, later adopted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) when he became president. It became controversial globally with the tens of thousands of suspected drug pushers and users killed by policemen. The killings prompted to International Criminal Court to conduct investigations on the former president’s “war on drugs.” (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
